State teachers unions blast NRA-funded proposals to arm school staff

Apr. 3, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press staff and news services

The school safety project funded by the National Rifle Association released a series of recommendations Tuesday aimed at making schools safer, including a firearms training program for teachers and other school staff.

But teachers unions and others in Michigan's educational community said they fear arming school employees actually would make buildings more dangerous.

The release of the National School Shield report comes a week before the U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up a package of gun-related bills in response to the December shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 schoolchildren and six educators were killed by a gunman.

"We don't need more guns in schools. We need schools to be gun-free. Introducing more weapons into schools is just a recipe for more tragedy," Doug Pratt, director of public affairs for the Michigan Education Association, said Tuesday. The MEA is the largest school employee union in the state.

Though the NRA has dismissed criticism that its sole solution to the problem of school violence is more guns in schools, the National School Shield's recommendations included several training programs that would arm school staff.

One would include a background check for school staffers who want to carry a firearm as well as 40 to 60 hours in training, former Republican U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, director of the project, said during a news conference at the National Press Club. The NRA initially advocated for former police officers to volunteer to guard schools, but Hutchinson said the NRA's research caused the group to back off that approach.

"In terms of volunteers, my impression of school superintendents is they would have great reluctance, and so it's not the best solution," Hutchinson said. "That's why we have shifted to school staff, trained school staff, that's designated by the superintendent of the school board."

The report acknowledged many schools were unable to afford adding school resource officers, which they suggest as an "important layer of security for prevention and response in case of an active threat on a school campus."

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David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers Michigan, called the NRA's proposed firearms training for teachers "a totally misguided concept."

"The answer is proper gun control that respects the Second Amendment, not having more guns," he said.

Pratt said gun violence is a societal problem whose solutions reach beyond classroom walls. He pointed to the 2000 death of a 6-year-old girl who was shot by a 6-year-old classmate near Flint.

"Under the NRA strategy, should their teacher, trained in the use of a firearm, have shot the 6-year-old? Should the security guard have shot the 6-year-old? That leads to more dead kids, not a solution to violence in our schools.

"We need real, holistic solutions to problems in terms of access to firearms and the ability to bring them into school buildings, whether it's by a student or by somebody who clearly needed mental help," he said.

Legislation to enhance school safety is part of the larger gun-related bill expected to hit the Senate floor next week, but those funds could not be used for programs like the NRA has proposed. Instead, the bill, introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., would provide $40 million in grants for infrastructure improvements such as cameras, fencing and bulletproof glass.

Teacher Shahidah Muta of Westland, who has taught for 22 years at various grade levels in Detroit Public Schools, said she would be concerned about students getting access to guns.

"I'm against teachers going into the classroom being armed. We have enough to worry about, trying to keep up with the students," she said.

The 225-page report also suggested improved training programs for school resource officers; an online threat assessment tool for schools, and further funding and coordination on issues of school safety between the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Education.

The NRA provided more than $1 million to fund the research that produced the report, Hutchinson said. While he repeatedly insisted the project was conducted independently of the NRA and without the group's influence, the news conference was organized by the NRA's press office, and the website for the project remains www.nraschoolshield.com.

Nevertheless, the NRA released a statement following the news conference commending Hutchinson's effort but saying the group "needed time to digest the report" before commenting on details.